Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling

I am finally getting in to the spirit of the world of Harry Potter. I have definitely found book three more enjoyable than the first two – although I’m still not 100% sold on the series.

For some reason Azkaban is probably the book I remember the least about going in to it. With the first two books, a lot of the time reading them I was just anticipating what was coming next and trying to convince myself that it was worth reading on. With Azkaban I didn’t have that. Looking at my copy of the book I’m presuming that I never read it when I was at school (it doesn’t have my name written in) and so I’m not entirely sure if I’ve ever actually read the whole of this book more than once previously.

I very much liked to introduction of Sirius Black and Lupin in to the series. I really did like these two characters especially Lupin. I also liked how this book also gave more of a back story relating to the school days of James Potter and gave a tiny bit of an insight in to just why Snape acts the way he does towards Harry. I think this really added something to the world of Harry Potter and made me a little bit more interested in the story.

I have to say though that while this book was suspenseful – the climax in the shack probably dragged on a little bit too long. And it seems strange that Sirius would want Harry to believe for such a long time that he wishes to kill him when Sirius is trying – at that point – to convince that he is not actually evil but actually a loving godfather.

I also think this book is the turning point for the characters of Harry, Hermione and Ron. I like that the three of them have started to grow up especially the fact that Hermione is starting to let loose and to act a bit more like a young teenager and not so much like a miniature teacher – but still being true to the herself.

I also liked how Fred and George got to have quite an important role in the book – as it is plausible that it would be those characters to give Harry the map.

I still wish we got to learn about the back stories of the other teachers – rather than just Snape and to an extent Lupin.

But Azkaban has definitely made me more excited to go on to read the rest of the series.